Irish Ferries parent company, Irish Continental Group (ICG), has reported higher profits and revenues for the six months to the end of June.
Such positive performance comes amid a continued return towards pre-pandemic travel patterns in addition to ICG’s ferry division that has seen continued growth on its Dover-Calais route.
The UK-France short-sea link, as Afloat reported in June, was boosted with the introduction of Oscar Wilde, previously serving rival P&O Ferries, though the companies have since entered into a freight-space partnership.
The Dublin-based ICG said its half-year revenue had rose by 8.1% to €285.5m from €264m for the same timeframe of last year. Profits before tax increased by 4.3% to €14.6m from €14m.
The group’s basic earnings per share jumped by 10.7% to 8.30 cent from 7.50 cent, while the company has declared an interim dividend of 5.11 cent. This reflects an increase of 5% on the interim dividend of 4.87 cent last year.
More RTE News reports on the financial results including its terminal and container divisions.
Afloat adds also that in June Irish Ferries had a first with a ferry named James Joyce, previously, the 'original' Oscar Wilde (see RTE's photo) which was renamed to free up this name for the aforementioned ‘Spirit’ class ferry on the UK-France link. The first ‘Oscar’ made its debut last year on the Irish Sea, initially on Rosslare-Pembroke route before currently running the Dublin-Holyhead/Cherbourg routes.
